The Unnatural - by Faldu, Summer 1519
Hello and welcome. This sermon has the topic "the unnatural". You may know that one of purposes of nature faith is to protect our world, Ateraan, from unnatural threats. Our first tenet, the tenet of duty, says "We must always be ready to meet any unnatural threat that arises - be it the destruction of our lands, the threat of the Dread, creatures of the undead, or things we have yet to even learn of."
But here the problem starts. We have some phenomenas in nature that may be cruel and harmful, like wildfires or floods, but nevertheless they are part of nature, part of the cycles. There are violent creatures like the black wolves or the forest trolls, what makes them different from the dread or the shleshtok? Why do we fight the one and not the other? How do we decide what is unnatural and what is not? What about us felines, hybrid creatures probably created by strange magic. And, well, you surely have seen the one or the other odd looking nymph in town, what about them? Is magic itself natural? Are the undead natural or unnatural? And what makes unnatural threats so much worse than others? I will try to answer this in my sermon.
So maybe we should start with the definition of the unnatural first - we all know what is natural - the things which directly come from nature - plants, animal, geological structures like mountains and rivers. Those are things which were created by Ateraan herself, without any influence or interference of a sapient. But does this make things not created by nature, like for example a peace of cheesecake, unnatural?
Of course, there are no wild growing cheesecakes in this world, you can't pick them from trees or hunt them in the savanna. But no one would call them "unnatural", because they consist of natural elements - milk, grain, sugar. A cheesecake is made of the elements of Ateraan. By contrast, a dread is not, because he comes from another dimension. But is this the only reason why we consider the dread unnatural?
Let's assume we find a piece of cheesecake which came here through a portal, made from the elements of another dimension. A normal tasty piece of cheesecake, not poisoned or anything. Could you even tell that it's from another dimension, or would it taste just the same? Would you call it unnatural, or wouldn't you even notice and just eat it?
The pure origin isn't a criteria for being natural or unnatural. The shleshtok came through a portal from another plane. But no one cared them, until they began to kill our sapients. And what makes them a threat is not as much their violence. There are other violent and aggressive creatures, too. There are wolves, sharks, trolls....
What makes the difference is that the shleshtok interact with this world in an unnatural way - they did not kill for survival, they sacrificed sapients of this planet to creatures from another dimension. They took from Ateraan in an irreversible way, drawing from her energy, breaking the balance.
Nature can cure herself. After a wildfire, new plants will grow. But this requires an unharmed and closed cycle. The ashes from the burned trees nurture the new plants. If there is a drain of Ateraan's energy by taking without giving, the cycle is broken.
*** What makes a threat unnatural is not it's origin from another plane of existence, it's the irreversible breaking of the natural balance. ***
The Felines and other hybrid creatures, the nymphs - they all have found their niche in Ateraan magnificence and are now a part of this world, a part of the balance and the cycles. So is the arcane magic itself. It doesn't harm this world, it is part of this world. Aggressive animals, even orcs, they kill and get killed. They are part of the cycles. They are not unnatural.
The great destroyer and his dread on the other hand want to take over and devastate our planet, our whole cosmos. There won't be a rebirth of the worlds they destroyed - they will be gone forever, until this universe will be a dead and empty place. This is the ultimate breaking of the cycles.
But can there be unnatural threats coming even from this planet? Well, we all have seem them.
The undead - Some argue that undead are natural. They are animated bones, so basically made of creatures which were born from Ateraan. They are made of Ateraan's elements. They raise just by themselves, without the help of any sapient. So is all fine with them?
The raising of a corpse takes the dead body out of the cycle - instead of returning it to Ateraan. The Undead take energy from Ateraan and weaken our planet. They kill, but they don't kill for living. They don't need to eat, so they won't die a natural death if their population grows too big. Undeads are not in balance - they will create more and more undead if not stopped. To leave this process alone would finally end all life on Ateraan at some point.
The most extreme example of this vicious circle is the disruptor - a horrible creature which integrates the dead bodies of its victims into its own, making it stronger with every kill. If not stopped, it will grow forever. We saw such a creature during a dread attack, but we also saw it summoned by people of this world, namely the Warlord. And the spirit of Guardian Kyte confirmed that the Warlord most probably created the disruptor with the help of the destroyer. The connection between the undead and the unnatural is obvious!
And as a last remark, also let's not forget that even natural threats can aggravate the unnatural ones - the extensive logging of our forests without replanting may not be consider unnatural, but it weakens the natural protection of our world and makes it easier for the dread to attack.
*** The third truth of nature faith is about the responsibility of sapients. It does make a difference if you act in harmony and accordance with nature or against it. Let's all work on protecting our planet, and stand with all our daily actions against our worst enemy, the great destroyer and his minions. ***
I thank you all for your attention. Please enjoy the cheesecakes. I promise you it's natural.